"Evgenia, you have no idea even howto clean silver, what to say about keeping cleanliness in the house. "(from the novel by Katherine Stockett" Servant ") And do you have a concept about this? Of course, the need for cleaning silver does not come from every modern hostess, because of the absence of silver. We somehow have already got used to do without silver utensils and cutlery. Although, in some houses there are silver spoons and silver coffee pots that were either received as a gift or inherited, But most of us are thinking about how to clean silver at home, when the silver jewelry is losing color and shine. After all, silver, in contrast to gold, has the property to darken and fade. Darkens silver for various reasons. If gold jewelry is not susceptible to substances contained in decorative and hygienic cosmetics, silver rings, chains and earrings actively react to them. More silver can darken from improper storage, moisture, contact with the body. In any case - the dining room is silver or jewelry - you need to clean it equally. True, unlike gold, this metal reacts painlessly is not all means. So, what means and methods are suitable for cleaning silver at home? Let's figure it out. 
Ammonia
Perhaps, ammonia can be called the mostan effective tool for cleaning silver at home. However, not everyone knows that for jewelry with stones ammonia must be used very carefully. And for gilded silver and jewelry with pearls, it is generally counter-indicative. To clean silver with ammonia, various methods are used.
Lemon acid
Clean the silver jewelry with stones you cancitric acid. To do this, a hundred grams of acid (in powder) should be diluted with two glasses of water, and then put the dishes with a solution in a water bath. Put in your utensils with a solution of your silver jewelry and boil for twenty to thirty minutes. Then rinse them in clean warm water. If you do not risk boiling your jewelry, then proceed as follows. Pour out the juice of fresh lemon, strain it and pour into a glass or a cup. Then put lemon juice rings, earrings and (or) chains and leave for a while. As soon as the original color returns to silver, take out the jewelry and wash it in warm water.
Baking soda and salt
Perhaps, one of the most accessible means forcleaning silver - baking soda or salt. To clean the silver with soda, pour two cups of water into a metal (not aluminum!) Mug and dissolve in it two tablespoons of soda. Stir and place on a fire. When the soda solution begins to boil, dip a piece of food foil into it first, and then a product that needs to be cleaned. Count to ten and take the silver out of the solution. Rinse it and wipe it dry. Only to grate powder of soda silver products it is impossible. Soda powder is an abrasive, so you remove the dark bloom, but damage the product by scratching it. However, for cutlery without a large number of patterns, you can use this method. Pour the soda in a saucer, add a little water, so that soda does not dissolve, but turned into a liquid slurry. Now dunk the rag into this gruel and gently wipe the product, clearing it of the dark plaque. If you decide to try to clean your silver products with salt, then make a salt solution: a teaspoon of salt for an incomplete glass of water. Then soak the silver in it and leave the hour for two or three. After this, boil the products in the same solution for ten to fifteen minutes, and then rinse and wipe.
Hydrogen peroxide
Some mistresses, by analogy with purging goldhydrogen peroxide, try and silver peroxide. However, when cleaning table silver and silver jewelry with hydrogen peroxide, care must be taken. The thing is, hydrogen peroxide only affects the silver in a positive way, restoring shine and removing the dark coating. But other metals (with the exception of gold) can be oxidized upon contact with hydrogen peroxide. And silver products are made not from pure silver, but from its alloys with other metals. Therefore, before cleaning the silver with hydrogen peroxide, perform a preliminary test. If jewelry made of gold is perfectly cleaned, being placed for a while in a mixture of water and hydrogen peroxide, then for silver jewelry and silverware, this method can be disastrous. So safely take this product to harmful chemical compounds for silver and refuse to clean your silver jewelry with hydrogen peroxide. By the way, in some silver cleaning recipes it is recommended to use ammonia alcohol in combination with hydrogen peroxide. This, supposedly enhances the effect. Perhaps this is so. Only, not knowing how your silver behaves under the influence of hydrogen peroxide, you should not take risks. 
Other means
In addition to the available cleaning agentssilver, there are tools that used long before the appearance in the home arsenal of the same ammonia, hydrogen peroxide, citric acid or soda. And there are modern, but very unexpected means.
- Garlic husks
To do this, you need to prepare a concentrated broth of husks of garlic and boil silver products in it. The time of boiling will depend on the degree of darkening and tarnishing of silverware.
- Potato broth
Cook one or more peeled potatoes. Take the potatoes out, and put the silver products into the resulting broth and leave them for ten to fifteen minutes. Then rinse and wipe dry.
- Eggshell
To use this tool, you will needan aluminum saucepan or mug. Pour water into it, add a tablespoon of salt, a shell of two raw eggs (per liter of water) and put on fire. While the water boils, rinse the silverware in hot water, and then dip them into boiling water with salt and eggshell. Count to twenty and take it out. Rinse and wipe with a soft cloth (better cloth).
- Vinegar
Try to clean the silver with vinegar. To do this, take the usual table vinegar (6%), dilute it with water and soak a cloth in this solution. Then just wipe the silver carefully, rinse it and wipe it dry. Vinegar perfectly cleanses silver from organic contaminants and mold. So you can use it not for radical cleaning, but with preventive care.
- Coca Cola
The fact that this popular carbonated drinkno benefit to the body does not bring (and even on the contrary!) is said already a lot. And some mistresses successfully clean the tea-pot from the scum and silver from the dark plaque. If you believe their experience, boiling in this beverage of silver products in five minutes returns them color and shine. However, experiment with this tool, as with hydrogen peroxide, is not worth it.
- Lipstick
Take an old toothbrush, apply on itlayer of lipstick and carefully polish the silver product. If you cope with a dark bloom this tool may not always, then to return the shine of silver with its help is quite real. By the way, you can clean silver at home by professional means. If you get such a special tool in a jewelry store, then for a long time, save yourself from troublesome cleaning with ammonia, hydrogen peroxide, vinegar, soda and others like them. First, you can safely and easily clean and table silver, and jewelry with stones, and secondly, protect the products from rapid oxidation. According to the producers, the means for cleaning jewelry made of silver form a protective layer on them. However, you can always make sure of this by applying such tools in practice. Good luck! We advise you to read:
